


Your Favorite Color

by supershadsy



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Comfort, M/M, Reminiscing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:48:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22896745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supershadsy/pseuds/supershadsy
Summary: A typical day of training takes a turn down memory lane when Sonic and Shadow discover relics from the Space Colony ARK in the depths of GUN HQ.
Relationships: Shadow the Hedgehog/Sonic the Hedgehog
Comments: 8
Kudos: 187





	Your Favorite Color

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! This piece is for minaturegalaxy @ Twitter! I'm sure we're not the only ones in a Sonic mood after the movie release (even this is in no way related). Please enjoy!

Because of its varied employees, GUN had a variety of custom fitted equipment for all shapes and sizes. Shadow thought that the noise cancelers were the least “innovative” of these offerings. He adjusted the strap for the tenth time since he reached the shooting range, desperate to make it so the caps wouldn’t slip off the top of his ears once again.  _ I do not exactly  _ need  _ this kind of protection, but it does not hurt,  _ he thought to himself.  _ I should have just taken the earplugs. Those do not need to be “custom-fitted”. _

He sighed to himself and took aim at the moving targets in front of him. Simple bullseyes, the center a brilliant red dot.  _ Steady.  _ He trained his breathing deep and slow, calming his focus as he slowly squeezed the trigger.  _ Bang! _

Dead center. The next was ready in line.  _ Bang!  _ And again. It was effortless.  _ Bang! Bang! Bang!  _

“Yooo!” 

His last shot was decidedly off-mark-- _ bang!-- _ on the edge of the eye instead of center. He fumbled the safety on the gun despite it being empty and slammed it on the table. “Jeez, dude, you jump like a cat,” Sonic said, right outside the door. 

Shadow whirled on his heel with clenched teeth and ripped off his hearing protection. Unfortunately, there was no difference with it on or off.  _ That is something to note--my hearing will overcompensate for dampening, just in case obnoxious hedgehogs interrupt you while brandishing a firearm. Chaos and gods damn it.  _

Sonic, meanwhile, had a finger in his ear, twisting and shaking it. “That’s pretty loud, huh,” he remarked, then pointed. “Hey, those are pretty neat! Did you get those custom fitted? I bet Tails would love something like that in the workshop--”

“Did you read the sign?” Shadow interrupted, pointing to the lit “CAUTION--RANGE IN USE” sign outside the door. “Could you not have waited five minutes?” 

“No, and no,” Sonic replied, tapping his foot. “I’ve been looking all over for you! Why get an apartment if you’re never going to  _ be there.”  _

Shadow shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I have a lot of training I want to do.”

“You’re Mr. Ultimate though, you don’t  _ need  _ it.”

“Right--however, I would rather not get comfortable at…” He trailed off.  _ The trials and tribulations of garnering an audience from one with no attention span.  _

Sonic stared up at the ceiling, then off and down the hall.  _ I wonder what he is thinking about. I wonder what his mind wanders to, what distractions grip him.  _ Shadow bit the inside of his cheek, then shook his head. “Right,” he muttered. “Well, what did you need?”

“Huh?” Sonic’s ears flicked. “Oh yeah, I just wanted to hang out!”

Shadow folded his arms and studied him. “Is there not someone more...lively you could bother at this hour?” 

“Well, Knux is doing some kind of meditation thing on the island, so he wasn’t up for it. Tails is working on something, and Amy’s doing...Amy stuff.” 

He waved his hand dismissively, and Shadow held back a smirk.  _ Something tells me he is just making excuses.  _ “Well, come on then. I will entertain you.” 

Sonic pumped his fist in the air, then winked at him. “C’mon, you know you like it. Even a serious guy like you can’t be grumpy all the time.” In an attempt to prove this, he crossed his eyes and puffed out his cheeks. 

Shadow snickered, just enough to be heard, and stepped around him.  _ What a character.  _ He ushered Sonic out of the shooting range with a hand just below his spines. His fingertips lingered in his blue fur, but as soon as they were in the hall, he withdrew, lacing both hands behind his back. 

Sonic was none the wiser, pleased with himself as he wandered a step ahead of him through the basement of GUN headquarters. “There’s a new coffee shop that’s opened up in Station Square, I want to hit it up,” he said. “We can take the long way over there.” 

“Are you sure you should be having coffee?” Shadow asked.  _ “Especially  _ at this hour?” 

“Well…” Sonic bobbed his head back and forth, drawing it out. “Like, I really  _ shouldn’t,  _ but y’know, it’s my life, and I can do what I want! That’s not what I really want, anyway. Coffee’s kind of gross. I usually put a ton of sugar in it--”

Shadow raised an eye ridge. “Mmhm.”

“--and they have more stuff than that, oh yeah! That’s why I wanted to go--Amy said they have a bunch of different stuff. Do you think they’ll have food there? Like  _ real _ food. Not that fancy stuff.” 

“Whatever do you mean, ‘fancy’...” Shadow replied, gently distracted. Because he had been so busy watching each of Sonic’s minute expressions, the drab gray cement of the basement had begun to blend together. “Are you paying attention to where you are going? There are several halls.” 

“Oh, totally! I got down here, didn’t I?” Sonic looked all around him, then picked up his pace in a light jog. “You see, if you go down, this way...wait, that’s a dead end. Huh, well this hallway’s open…” 

_ He has no idea.  _ “Sonic, do not lead if you do not know where you are,” Shadow scolded.

“Who are you, my dad?” He stuck his tongue out, slightly irritated, judging by the twitch of his nose and ears. “I’ve got this, I’m telling you. My feet have got more brains than my head does sometimes. See, it’s this way!” 

The lighting had changed--the fluorescents above them became green tinged as Sonic jogged down the hall.  _ I remember when I was becoming acclimated to this place, I would wander down here for hours, disoriented.  _ Shadow’s focus waned.  _ The ARK was nowhere near the same, but the halls were laid out similarly. Winding. Dimly lit. Claustrophobic. _

_ (“Shadow!” A plaintive voice in the dark, just out of reach...) _

He shook his head vigorously.  _ No. None of that. _

Somehow, in the seconds that he wasn’t paying attention, Sonic had disappeared. Well, not completely--listening closely, he could hear the patter of his sneakers against the floor, and it led Shadow down the hall, to the right, and around a couple other corners.  _ How on earth did he get so turned around so quickly? Even I know this is the wrong way.  _

“Ooh, look at all this!” Sonic exclaimed, his voice echoing. “What’s it, it’s like a museum up in here!”

“Sonic…” Shadow called. As he entered the doorway, he took note of the “AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY” sign, along with the keypad next to it. The light above it was green and blinking, and Shadow was sure that Sonic didn’t try and force his way into it.  _ Careless on someone else’s part, forgetting to lock this room.  _ “This is…” 

Inside was a plethora of cardboard boxes--some sealed, some fully opened--all overflowing with miscellany. Each of the boxes were stamped with the GUN logo, but it was arranged differently, with some boxes even stating the full “Guardian Units of the Nation” moniker.  _ That is an older logo, predating myself and Rouge by some time.  _ The room was windowless, as were most of the basement offices, but this one had a desk and lamp on it, as well as a CRT television with a VHS attached to it. 

“There’s so much crap in here,” Sonic marveled, peering and prodding into every odd box. “Hey, what’s this puffy thing? Is it a space suit?” 

“We are not supposed to be in here,” Shadow huffed. His sense of duty and practicality spoke for him, but curiosity controlled his eyes--they wandered over the boxes, and his feet ushered him to a particular one flayed completely open.

“Yeah, but it was open! Who’s gonna tell us no?” Sonic held up a white uniform with orange stripes on the side, then quickly discarded it to dart over to the TV. “Does this thing work?  _ Waahk!”  _

He pressed the power button, and the TV sprung to life in an explosion of static and white noise. Sonic’s fur bristled on end, and he slammed his hand against the buttons to turn it off. Despite his own heart pounding in his chest, Shadow snickered and shook his head.  _ I am not the only one who can be startled easily.  _

“Aha! G-guess it does!” Sonic said in a warbly falsetto. “Ha...”

_ I should make a call to get this room secured again,  _ he thought, peering into the box that caught his eye. “Case 61920-01,” Shadow muttered, reading the edge of the box.  _ That is familiar...because that is the case file for the incident at Space Colony ARK… _

His eyes went wide, and he reached inside.  _ So that most certainly means… _

“Whatcha got there?” Sonic asked, sliding right up to Shadow’s side. “What’s that from?” 

Between his fingertips, Shadow held up a small dress. It was a brilliant blue, with lighter blue sleeves and lace adorned at the top of the collar. The fabric was rough on the outside, stuff cotton, but the inside was delicate and soft.  _ Given the fact that it has been shoved inside a box for over fifty years, it is in remarkable condition,  _ Shadow thought.

“Shad?” Sonic’s voice dipped into caution. “Everything okay?” 

“This was...her dress,” Shadow said. He felt very far away, as if he was watching himself speak and hold up the garment. “She never...wore  _ this  _ particular one that often. Only on special occasions. She wore it...for her birthday.” 

Shadow’s knees threatened to buckle beneath him, and so he obliged them by slowly sitting down on the floor and resting the dress in his lap. Sonic joined him, even as he crossed his legs into a tight pretzel and held his feet to keep them from bobbing. With some hesitation, Shadow brought the dress to his face and smelled it.  _ It’s musty...mixed with the chlorine smell of bleach and some kind of fruity fragrance. It has not been washed.  _

He chuckled to himself in spite of the thrumming of adrenaline peaking in his head. “They say that scent triggers memory the strongest,” he remarked. “I have never put much stock into that, but I believe I just...I have never known what to look for.” 

Sonic nodded slowly, then tilted his head. “So...is this stuff from, like...Space Colony ARK?” he asked. “That would explain the space gear…” 

“That is correct.” 

Sonic looked over the dress a little closer, then squinted. “That’s your friend’s then, from way back then,” he concluded. “Ma...ria?” 

_ You remembered. It has been some time since our conflict with the Biohazard...when my twisted revenge in her name was all I could think about.  _ “That is right,” Shadow whispered. 

He shifted the fabric between his fingers, the image of her face lingering in his mind.  _ There is much that I do not remember...or that exists in pieces and fragments. Having my memory addled three or so times has taken its toll, no matter that I was built to be the ultimate lifeform. In fairness, the things that I  _ do  _ remember are _

_ crystal clear.  _

“Sonic,” Shadow said, not taking his eyes off the dress. “May I ask you something?” 

“Sure, dude. Anything.” 

“What is your favorite color?”

The question felt silly as soon as it left his mouth, but as Sonic pondered it seriously--with a grin and a wiggle of his crossed knees--his regret fizzled out. “Red, for sure. It’s my lucky color!” Sonic pointed down at his shoes with a finger at each side. “But I like green too. It reminds me of the beginning of spring, when all the trees are blooming, and long, rolling fields...oh, I like yellow too! It’s hard to pick one color. There were a ton of yellow flowers where I grew up, so it reminds me of home. Though these days, I don’t really have one…” 

Shadow nodded as he babbled on.  _ Chatty.  _ Sonic’s eyes flicked over to him mid-sentence, and his shoulders dipped.  _ It is not a bad thing. I enjoy listening.  _ “I see,” Shadow said. “Green was also Maria’s favorite color.”

***

_ “I love green,” Maria said. “It reminds me of the grass back on Earth.”  _

_ She pressed her face against the glass window, her breath making fog against the velvet dark beyond it. Sprawled out around her were a mess of crayons and paper, where she was drawing in emerald green. “I was always too sick to go outside and play in it, but I always wanted to.” _

_ She turned back towards Shadow--bright blonde hair bouncing against her shoulders with a toothy grin that matched it. “That’s why Grandfather built me the nature biome! All the grass is safe for me to play in!” _

_ Shadow couldn’t help but smile along with her, baby fangs poking out from the corners of his mouth. Maria’s voice was a melody to his ears, her eyes so kind, even despite the deep, dark circles beneath them.  _

_ “What’s your favorite color, Shadow?” she asked him.  _

_ It wasn’t anything he had thought of before. The doctors in the lab never asked him these questions--they only ran test after test, poked him with needles (although it seemed to hurt less every time), and locked him into something called a “stasis tube” to sleep for a while. He stared at her dress for a moment, and then said the only thing that could come to his mind… _

_ “Blue.”  _

_ Maria snorted, then giggled, then burst into full on laughter. “Oh, Shadow!” she exclaimed, then reached out and hugged him as tight as she was able. “Aren’t you sweet!”  _

_ He hugged her back, his tail flicking back and forth in glee… _

***

Shadow took deep measured breaths, feeling strangely exhausted. It was an unusual sensation--an ache in his chest and shoulders, and a strain in his throat. Sonic was right beside him, shoulders brushing.  _ I do not think I have ever told that story before… _

_...perhaps because I am only now remembering it… _

“Maria...was a sweet girl,” Shadow continued, staring blankly through the dress that was still in his hands. “She was a jewel on the ARK, even as sickly as she was. How could I answer otherwise? The blue of her dress was the same as the blue of her eyes. A beautiful, brilliant blue.” 

Sonic wrapped his arm around Shadow’s shoulder, and the comfort itself made Shadow shake his head. “Those are times long gone,” he muttered. “The past is behind me. Dwelling will only hold me back.” 

“Hey, it’s okay,” Sonic reassured. “I mean, you didn’t know we were gonna come across a whole  _ time capsule  _ when you woke up today. You just never know.” 

Shadow glanced over, and there was a serene look gracing Sonic’s muzzle.  _ You always have a way of spinning things in a positive light,  _ he thought. 

“I still wanna see if there are any hedgehog sized suits,” Sonic muttered, distracting himself...but only briefly, it seemed. “Hey, it ain’t good to bottle stuff up either. You remember when you showed back up after what happened on the ARK?” 

_ Ah, after Rouge found me, my memory wiped a second time.  _ “I do. You did not seem...perturbed in the slightest.” 

“Sure, I was trying to play it off,” Sonic said. “But it was...a lot.”

He fell silent. His body language spoke more than his words--his ears drooped, and he couldn’t seem to look over at Shadow...when he did, his smile was weak as he clicked his tongue. “It sucked, man.” 

He paused, then laughed to himself and shook his head. “We went to the end of the world together. That’s crazy. I’m just glad you’re back for good.”

“I am indeed,” Shadow replied. “I--”

Before he could finish, Sonic launched himself into Shadow’s arms, knocking the dress out of his hands entirely, and embracing him in a tight hug.  _ Sonic…!  _

_ You… _

Sonic inhaled deep in the crook of Shadow’s neck, nuzzling his face into it. “Thanks for telling me that story, Shad,” he said, his voice deeper than Shadow was used to hearing it. “I like it when you tell me stuff.”

“W-well, I…” Shadow’s words suddenly felt lost in his throat. “I trust you.”

He could feel the smile spread on Sonic’s face just by the warmth on his shoulder.  _ Yes, I trust you, Sonic, I trust you with my very life. I hope you know that I would have your back as well, through anything. Anything and everything at all, even if you outpace me, _

_ even when you grow old, and I do not… _

Shadow ran his fingers down Sonic’s back, between his spines once again.  _ Sonic… _

Suddenly, the TV blared to life.  _ “Do  _ you  _ have what it takes to join the Guardian Units? My name is Jones Jacobson, and I’m the commander of the National Space Unit here in Metal Harbor…” _

Sonic’s fur stood up like needles, and he clutched Shadow hard enough to dig into his skin.  _ “Yikes!”  _ he yelped as he clawed. “Holy smokes! I turned that off! You saw me turn that off, didn’t you?” 

“I saw you press a button, yes,” Shadow replied, struggling to keep his balance so he wasn’t flat on the floor. “Whether you powered it off or not--ugh, please, you are  _ choking me--” _

Sonic loosened his grip and rose to his feet, allowing Shadow to do the same. Maria’s dress had crumpled itself into a ball, and Shadow took the effort to smooth it out and fold it carefully into a neat square.  _ My favorite color is still the same,  _ he thought, brushing away the stray fur that clung to it, both black and blue. He placed the dress carefully back in the box, leaving it better than when he found it.  _ But I have found different reasons to enjoy it.  _

_ Blue, the color of the sky, the color of the sea as a result. Blue, the color of… _

Sonic was back at the TV, squinting at the black and white propaganda video on the screen. “Get a load of this guy,” he remarked, jerking a thumb at “Jones Jacobson”. “Looks like his hair’s made of plastic.” 

Shadow didn’t take his eyes off Sonic.  _ Blue, the color of you.  _

“Aw cool, I know where that is! That GUN shipyard was fun to run through,” Sonic commented. He took a moment to examine the TV more carefully, then extended his index finger and deliberately pressed the correct power button. “Aaaand off.”

He turned and dusted his hands, catching Shadow staring at him. “What are you starin’ at?” he asked, not unkindly. 

In fact, Shadow could spot a hint of pink in his muzzle. 

“Nothing,” Shadow replied, clearing his throat. “Nothing at all.”

_ FIN. _

* * *

_ (extra…) _

“Okay, got your dark roast with a shot of cream,” Sonic said, having to raise his voice over the bustle in the Station Square Cafe. He set the mug down in front of Shadow, then plopped down in front of him with his own drink. “And  _ this _ baby’s for me.”

Shadow wrinkled his nose. In a fountain soda glass was a frozen drink in blue and green layers, topped with what appeared to be whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate. It was covered with rainbow sprinkles, and the straw inserted was a red and white spiral. “What...what the  _ hell  _ is that,” Shadow asked incredulously.

Sonic was positively beaming. “It’s an Emerald Coast Sour Twist,” he replied, drumming his fingers on the table. “It’s sour green apple and blue raspberry.” 

“That has more sugar than you need in your lifetime,” Shadow remarked. “And do not drink that...so fast…”

Before he could even finish, Sonic pulled out  _ another  _ straw and jammed it into the concoction. He sucked so hard his cheeks caved in, and Shadow watched incredulously as he emptied it down to halfway. “Ooh! Aw man, that’s good-- _ ack, brainfreeze…” _

Sonic held his forehead, while Shadow shook his head and took a measured sip of his coffee. “What am I ever going to do with you?” he muttered. 

Sonic opened one eye and grinned. “Do you think my tongue is blue yet?” He stuck it out for examination. 

Shadow snorted. “Only a little.” 


End file.
